AN: Note that I do not own Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, or any of the characters from either Anime. This work is a fanfiction written out of my love for the series and not in any attempt to make a profit.
Proofread by: Me, as a result of writing this right before uploading, and both of my proofreaders unavailable.
Well then, just like the last chapter, this one also happens to be delayed by a few hours. However, it is still within the same day for me, so I suppose I can see this as a success for keeping the idea of uploading on schedule, which was nothing more than a promise to keep uploading every other day. I felt a lot better writing this chapter than I did writing the last one, although I took a long time to write it. Oh, and I will admit that this chapter would have been uploaded about 2 hours earlier, had I not gotten completely lost in the new Terraria update and forgotten the time. I apologize for that.
Chapter 21: Battle over, second begins
Seeing Tenten pull out the two scrolls, holding them in front of herself with one hand, Lee and Guy immediately recognized what it was she intended to use next. "She's already resorting to using it?" Guy asked out loud, both surprised, as well as a little concerned that Tenten felt the situation to be dire enough to use her ace, revealing it here, in front of potential future opponents, giving them time to come up with a counter-strategy to it for the third exam where she would be hoping to show it off.
"Pulling out two scrolls? What does she intend to do?" Naruto asked, a little confused as they had already seen her use one to little effect. While Lee was standing next to him, he had gotten somewhat tense and didn't answer Naruto's question, leaving it to Sakura to speculate.
"Perhaps she has a special technique requiring multiple ones?" Sakura proposed while continuing to watch the match, rooting for Tenten as a fellow Konohagakure Kunoichi.
Putting the two scrolls down on either side of herself, Tenten left them standing upright as she brought her hands together to begin forming hand-signs. Rapidly going through the seals for tiger, dragon, monkey, hare, and snake, Tenten finished by crossing her arms across her chest, bringing her hands up along her shoulders in closed fists, as she named her technique. "Twin Rising Dragons!" She exclaimed, opening her fists, resulting in a big explosion of smoke from the technique activating. The cloud immediately covered the entire battleground, hiding Tenten, Gaara, and Hayate from view.
Suddenly, from the smoke, in pillars made out of more smoke, the silhouettes of two Chinese lóng dragons shot up into the air, circling each other as the smoke that made them up dissipated, revealing them to actually consist of the unfurled scrolls Tenten had previously taken out. At the bottom, in the center of the double helix, Tenten crouched low, before jumping straight up into the air, taking advantage of the scrolls spinning around her to easily grab and deploy weapons from their seals, sending dozens on dozens of kunai, shuriken, senbon needles, sickles, knives, nunchucks, Fūma Shuriken and various other tools at Gaara, making the smoke around him part, only to reveal a sort of sand shell surrounding him from all directions, effortlessly having protected him from any damage. Cracking open, it revealed Gaara looking right at Tenten with a displeased frown, before raising a hand, suddenly enveloping Tenten before she could do anything as she had been momentarily stunned by the power of Gaara's defense.
As she was caught in Gaara's sand, Tenten began struggling immediately, trying to get out of it, only to feel like she was sinking into it instead, the sand seemingly trying to swallow her whole. Panicking for a moment, Tenten suddenly remembered a small detail and decided that she should try her luck with her next opponent instead. "I give up!" She exclaimed, startled as the sand surrounding her didn't stop and continued to try and consume her, now beginning to press down on her from all sides to the point it was beginning to hurt.
"Tenten loses by surrender, the winner is Gaara, you can let go of her now." Hayate tried to tell Gaara, only to grow wide-eyed as Tenten instead let out a pained shout. Before Hayate could attack Gaara to force him to let go of Tenten, the sand holding her simply fell apart and Tenten fell to the floor, while Gaara's sand returned to the gourd on his back, before he took one last look at Tenten, scoffing, before joining his teammates up on the balcony, jumping up to them from the floor, rather than taking the stairs.
Meanwhile, Hayate had hurried over to Tente's side, trying to access the damage done to her. "Are you alright?" He asked her, getting a weak nod from her, despite the grimace on her face that gave away the fact that she was actually in great pain. Frowning Hayate called for a stretcher, letting two medic-nin take Tenten away, while on the balcony, Guy had to restrain Lee from confronting Gaara.
"What the hell did he do that for? She already gave up!" Naruto pointed out, furious onTenten's behalf, shouting slightly as he was annoyed by Gaara's decision to harm Tenten beyond what was necessary.
"I agree, that was certainly uncalled for, but as nothing too serious seems to have resulted from it, and since Gaara did stop his assault, there's not much we can say. He will still advance to the third exam." Kakashi told team seven from behind them. Turning to look at their Sensei, team seven saw him once again showing off his carefree, laid back, lazy attitude, as she was leaning against the wall, once again reading from his small, orange little book, Icha Icha Paradise.
"No shame, absolutely no shame!" Inner Sakura complained loudly in Sakura's head, making her shake her head in bemusement before turning back to the battlefield where Hayate seemed ready to begin speaking again.
"With the first battle concluded with Gaara as the winner," Hayate began, only to be overtaken by another coughing fit, before recovering and continuing, "he will advance to participate in the third exam. Now, let's get right to the next battle." Hayate told them, gesturing towards the electronic signboard again, as it began randomizing the next battle.
As the randomization process ended, Sakura felt her heart skip a beat as she read the names on the monitor. Sakura Haruno, against Shino Aburame. Looking over towards team eight, she spotted Shino. They had been classmates in the academy like most of the Konohagakure Genin left in this exam were. At first glance, he didn't seem to have changed much, at least visually. He still wore sunglasses, while his jacket had a high collar that hid his mouth. While Sakura hadn't exactly been close with Shino, that seemed to ring true for most of the kids that had been in their class. Most kept their distance from the Aburame, due to the reputation of his clan raising and controlling all kinds of bugs.
Suppressing a shudder at the thought of having to fight against giant bugs, like the centipede Naruto had nailed to a tree in the Forest of death. She wasn't a big fan of bugs, to begin with, but facing an Aburame who likely had plenty of training in controlling the bugs he had raised.
"You know, while it might be heartless, if it is against bugs, we could use the energy against them without holding back," Inner suggested, making Sakura feel a little bit better. Inner was right, the thought of killing a whole swarm of bugs that someone had carefully raised was not at the top of activities she would be completely fine with. Normal bugs, she couldn't care less about, but knowing that someone relied on them, and put a lot of effort into raising them made it feel like she was planning to kill their pet.
"We can't be thinking like that. The Aburame are the ones who decide to use their bugs in battle. Fatalities are unavoidable in situations like this. We can warn him, but from there on out, we protect ourselves." Inner rationalized, trying to help Sakura not to think any further on the topic of the bond between bugs and the Aburame while hammering out a tactic for them to use.
"Will Sakura Haruno and Shino Aburame please come down so we can begin the second match," Hayate asked them, coughing a few times afterward.
In contrast to Gaara's flashy exit, both Sakura and Shino opted for taking the stairs down, taking the long way. Sakura took the moment to compose herself and consider how she would try and battle against Shino. She knew virtually nothing about him, having only had eyes for Sasuke during her time at the academy. Naruto was loud and obnoxious in a way that made him unforgettable, but other than that, Sakura knew embarrassingly little about the rest of her former classmates. She assumed that his attacks would involve bugs in some capacity, but also kept in mind that he would know the same academy taught Taijutsu and Ninjutsu as her. Besides, he might have picked up things from his Sensei, Kurenai, or his clan members, even before entering the academy. After all, the Uchiha had made sure Sasuke could breathe fire during his time at the Academy, so why wouldn't the other clans do something similar?
While rudimentary, Sakura's plan consisted of hopefully eliminating Shino's bugs, or make sure he would understand that using them would be pointless against her. If she was lucky, perhaps he would simply give up when met with her unexplainable powers. The less contact she would have to make with his bugs, the easier this battle would end up being for her. Hopefully, Shino wouldn't find a way to use her distaste for bugs to his advantage somehow.
As they finally found themselves in front of Hayate, they turned to face each other and waited for his signal to begin. Not a moment later, it came. "Now we will begin the second match," Hayate announced while stepping back a bit to give the two combatants some space.
"Sakura! Good luck, don't lose!" Naruto shouted, trying to be encouraging as he cheered for Sakura. Ignoring Naruto's shouting she didn't acknowledge him as she instead focused her gaze on Shino, trying to determine any possible weak points she might be able to exploit.
"Now then, please begin," Hayate told them after having stepped away.
Immediately drawing a Kunai, Sakura jumped backward, creating some distance between herself and Shino, and raised the kunai in front of herself, pointing it at Shino. "I'll give you a warning right away. Any bugs you try and send at me will die, I can guarantee it." She warned him, hoping to intimidate him, or at least make him hesitate. She wasn't lying either as Inner helped her muster the resolve to use deadly force to show off her strength.
"A bold statement. I thank you for the warning, but I have no reason to believe that your predictions will be correct." Shino responded, not backing down as he drew a kunai of his own to match Sakura.
Frowning to herself, Sakura, accepted that the plan with a very faint chance to succeed, where he would back down and give up to preserve his insects instead of aiming to pass the exam, had failed. Sakura didn't know where Shino's bugs would supposedly be, but she assumed that something akin to the summoning of Iruka could be possible with animals, or in this case, bugs.
With Shino drawing a weapon to match hers, Sakura was able to tell that Shino was either really good at bluffing, or he had kept up with his daily physical training, unlike herself. If it came to Taijutsu, then she would likely lose. This meant her best bet was to bet it all on her Ninjutsu and new abilities. She doubted that whatever ninjutsu she could conjure up would make all that much of a difference. Reaching out with her energy sense, Sakura could feel Hayate and Shino in her vicinity. She could feel that there was something odd about Shino's, but not able to put a finger on it, unable to feel out the finer details of his energy.
As she began the movement of rushing at Shino, she attempted a feint, making it look as if she was attempting to stab at him with her kunai, only to let go of it and let it sail off at an angle, right for Shino's face, as her hand clenched into a fist, intending to deliver a punch at the same time as her Kunai would hopefully distract him.
What followed was a battle that despite Sakura's intentions, turned into a Taijutsu brawl. Drawing them both into a dance of punches, feints, kicks, counters, and kunai. Neither of them held back as their spot in the third exam was on the line.
AN: I honestly don't think there was much I could do with Tenten's fight against Gaara. Now, for those that thought that Gaara would end up harming Tenten the way he harmed Lee in canon, don't be silly. Tenten was really at a disadvantage due to this matchup, and so, against Gaara, she is a far lesser threat than Lee. She doesn't even manage to harm him, really, so Gaara wouldn't have been as inclined to try and kill her. Of course, that idea kind of contradicts Gaara's little farewell present. Well, logically thinking, Gaara simply ensured that she would have a harder time advancing to the next exam. While a logical move, he did break the rules to a degree.